


Unlucky Enough

by faraandmera



Series: Camp Camp Powers AU [2]
Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen, and the psuedo unwilling family like dynamic of him and the counselors, max is still a kid and his plans are questionable in how thought out they actually are, neil and nikki barely appear, the focus is on max, the rating is like entirely because this child swears
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 02:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11613900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faraandmera/pseuds/faraandmera
Summary: He knows he hasn’t pissed anyone off that is capable of that, though. So he can’t say he’s cursed. No, he’s just Max. Just unlucky enough to be himself.





	Unlucky Enough

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr version: http://faronisisioni.tumblr.com/post/163429363743/unlucky-enough

_“Temperature control is such a useful ability!”_

_“You’re parents must be proud, even though you’re-”_

_“Can’t you control it at all?!”_

_“Undo this right now!”_

_“Wow that’s so cool!”_

_“You need to learn to-”_

_“I bet you really like being a mutant, with that power!”_

_“We’re going to send you-”_

 

Temperature control is such a ‘cool’ ability that people tend to forget the world still isn’t perfect for him. That there are still people who dismiss non-human citizens. Who blame mutants, even children, who can’t control their abilities.

Which is  _really_ fucking stupid.

While the point of the camp has gone from ‘ _a safe place for mutants_ ’ to a ‘ _place for mutants and other non-humans to gain control over their abilities,_ ’ it’s status as a shitty place hasn’t changed. It’s actual usefulness is questionable, and Max is fairly certain the only reason anyone is actually sent here is to get them out of the way.

Max is just unlucky enough to be one of the people sent here.

 

If you heat something that is really cold suddenly, it explodes. Max has been trying to master this, in small form, for quite a while. As part of his grand escape plan- number sixteen- he’s going to create an explosive distraction, then make a run for it. It’s  _full-proof_. The assistance of Nikki and Neil, makes hiding his practicing of his ability easier.

Then again, Max is fairly sure if he was openly practicing his ability, David would just act proud of him for trying.

Which would be even worse, he thinks.

 

It starts raining. It’s summer, but it starts  _raining_ , and Max curses the universe. He’s not stupid enough to think he can escape camp in the dark while it’s raining, even if he could manage to get away unnoticed. With a sigh, he decides to put the plan on hold.

For now, he might as well make use of the rain. It  _is_ summer after all, and nobody is prepared for the cold. Rain becomes ice, ice becomes snow, and Max, though wont admit it, is actually really surprised he manages this. Of course, it’s only in a small area surrounding him, but it’s  _something_.

Max makes his way away from his tent, where everyone is turning in for the night, and towards the counselor’s cabin. If he has to stay here and suffer another day, then he’s going to make sure someone else suffers too!

Someone else being David, of course. Gwen is probably there, as well, but he figures she’s only slightly less annoying, and it’s okay to drag her into this as well.

Max realizes when he reaches the cabin that he doesn’t know which side of it is whose, so he takes a guess, and stands against one of the walls. It’s only just beginning to occur to him that he, too, has to deal with the snow for this plan, but he’s too far into this now to just return to his tent.

It only takes three minutes to get some sort of reaction, and as luck- or the lack of- would have it, Gwen slams the cabin door open with a look that could probably kill. Max considers making a run for it, but her gaze catches him before he can.

“Max, what the hell.”

The pressure of actually having someone witness his ability- something he’d practically trained himself not to let happen- has the snow returning to water against his will. “Shit.”

 

Max hadn’t considered the fact that the snow would melt- even if he had kept it up until he was back in his own tent- and leave him soaked, and freezing. Now, standing in the counselors cabin, he can’t find the energy to warm himself or the water. Which leaves him to curse himself. Just his luck he would forget that obvious detail.

Gwen has seated herself in a chair, arms crossed, and seems unsure what to do about the situation. They both know Max wont apologize, and they both know that if they just keep standing around, Max will likely get sick. So they stand- or sit- there, staring each other down waiting for the other to say something about the situation, outside of Gwen’s initial words of anger.

“What’s going on?”

 _Ah_ , Max thinks,  _of course David would wake up_. That was just his luck. “Nothing is going on, asshole, go back to sleep.” Max’s voice shakes more than he expects it too, and he only just realizes he’s shivering. Cool, great,  _fantastic_. Max heaves an annoyed sigh.

“Max thought it would be a great idea to make it snow around our cabin, so we would freeze our asses off.” Gwen’s response get’s a raised eyebrow from David, who looks between Gwen and Max.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Didn’t you notice it was freezing in here?”

“Nope.” David laughs, shrugging. “It’s perfectly warm to me.”

That, Max thinks, is just plain  _unfair_. Gwen voices a similar notion. “That’s not fair, what the fuck.” It’s not a question, really.

“Well you see,” David begins to answer anyway, while Max audibly groans. She just  _had_ to say that. “Lycan’s have an unusually warm temperature, usually. Actually! That’s true for a lot of shape-shifting species! It makes it so that it takes less time to change forms, because-”

“Never mind. Don’t care,” Gwen cuts him off, holding up a hand.

“Aw, but it’s really interesting.”

“Save it for story time, or something.”

“This is  _great_ and all. Really  _interesting_.” Max gains their attention, and makes sure to frown as much as possible to emphasize how much he doesn’t want to be here. “But I’m fucking dying here; can I go?”

It’s not as if he’s lying. Max is pretty sure he’s going to get sick if he doesn’t seek warmth soon. Of course he first has to walk through the rain to his tent, but it’s better than standing here listening to their conversation.

“Oh! Max, you’re soaked!”

“No shit.” Max rolls his eyes, before leveling David with a glare. David seems unperturbed by this.

“It’s still pouring,” Gwen notes. The sound of water hitting the cabin would be a nice lullaby under other circumstances. As it is, the sound just reminds Max of his situation. “We can’t just let you go back out into that.”

Max gives an annoyed huff, about to respond, but doesn’t get to speak before David does. “We should get you some dry clothes, and you can stay here until that let’s up!”

“Listen, dumbass, I’m not wearing anything that isn’t mine so-”

“Then I’ll go to your tent.”

“Am I the only one seeing how hypocritical that is?”

Max’s arguments go ignored.

 

While David sets out with a few plastic sealable bags- which are surprisingly large- Gwen sits Max down on David’s cot, and throws a towel over his shoulders. Max has to curse his luck. He had this big, well thought out, plan. Yet, as his luck would have it, here he is, having stupidly decided to do something he hadn’t thought out, and stuck in the counselors cabin.

Max would like to blame this on some sort of curse. He isn’t sure he actually believes in curses- no matter what Nerris says- but if they are real he knows he hasn’t pissed anyone off that would know how to give him one yet. So he can’t say he’s cursed. No, he’s just  _Max_. Just unlucky enough to be himself.

Surprisingly heavy footfalls draw him out of his thoughts, and he turns his attention to the door. With a sigh, and a roll of her eyes, Gwen makes her way over to open the door. Instead of David, a large wolf stands there. It takes a second for Max to process the plastic bags in it’s mouth, and he reminds himself that David is a lycanthrope.

Despite Max being fairly sure that David wont fit through the cabin door- and Gwen says something along those lines as well- David still tries to force himself through the door. Surprisingly, he manages it, and tumbles onto the floor. When he stand back on his feet- paws- Gwen grabs his head to keep him from shaking it. His fur- the same colour and fluffy texture of his hair- is wet with rain water.

“Do not.” Gwen takes a step back, and holds out her hands. David drops the bags into her hands, and takes to sitting on the ground. “Why’d you transform?”

The response she gets is David lifting a paw, and waving in back and forth twice, slowly, then two more times quicker. Max has no idea what that’s supposed to mean, but Gwen seems to understand, as she nods in response. When she drops Max’s clothes next to him, he looks between them with a raised eyebrow.

“He thought it would be faster.” Gwen shrugs. Behind her, David nods. “Now, you should change.”

Max hops off of the bed he’s seated on, dropping the towel from his shoulders, before glaring at the Counselors. Both take the hint, and turn away from him.

Being in dry clothes is a welcome relief. Max haphazardly drops his we clothes to the ground, and wraps the towel back around him, to save his fresh clothes from his dripping hair.

A small, “okay,” is the only indication he gives the counselors that it’s safe to turn around. As soon as he does, Gwen makes her way across the room to find another towel, which she drapes over David. Then, she drops into her bed.

“Now, I’m going to sleep.”

Max hadn’t noticed before, but there’s another bag set in front of David- likely with his own clothing- which David pushes to one side of himself before transforming. The transformation is strangely smooth, and Max wonders if he feels it at all. Then David struggles with keeping the towel wrapped around himself, while he tries to get dressed, which is rather amusing to watch.

Once he does manage it, David makes a halfhearted attempt to dry his hair, before settling the towel around his neck. “Okay, Max, you really should get some rest!”

“Yeah, whatever.”

David willingly sacrifices his bed to Max, who isn’t going to argue with that. Max expects him to curl up in one of the rooms chairs, but David lays flat on the ground, using a towel as a blanket, and honestly Max isn’t sure why he’s surprised by this. The guy’s weird.

 

It doesn’t take long for Max to realize that something is off. He’d been trying to sleep, but he finds himself still much too cold. Opening his eyes reveals the ice forming over the wall in front of him, and he groans, annoyed.  _Of course_ , right after he managed to purposefully use his power, it would decide to do something all on it’s own.

The cold, it seems, hasn’t managed to reach the Counselors, but that doesn’t help Max any. Max isn’t sure what possesses him too, but he sits up and calls out to David. David sits up immediately, and Max realizes he hadn’t ever fallen asleep. A glance a Gwen shows that she, at least, had gone to sleep. That, or she’s doing a really good job of ignoring things.

“Yes, Max?”

“Look.” Max sighs, crossing his arms. “I’m doing this shit on purpose, okay? But…”

Max’s vague shrugging somehow seems to inform David of the situation, because he nods. Max has to wonder if David is aware of all the workings of Max’s temperature control- and his lack of control over it- because his first thought fits with one what Max knows about his own power. “Should we get you more blankets? We might have some around here…”

When Max’s powers act on their own, it’s usually in a way that reflects- and exaggerates- how he already feels. So if he’s already cold, it’ll make it much, much colder. Max shrugs, realizing he hasn’t responded, but David stands, likely to search for the aforementioned blankets.

Gwen makes sure everyone knows how annoyed she is at her sleep being interrupted, when she sits up. David stops, turning to her, surprised. She sighs, pulls her blanket into a ball, and then throws it at him. David makes a startled noise, but manages to catch it. Gwen then turns her attention to Max.

“Here, you brat.” Her glaring is halfhearted at best, and Max doesn’t have it in him to respond. David drops Gwen’s blanket on top of the one over Max. After a moment of hesitation, Max pulls the blankets up around him.

“There you go! Do you think that’ll be warm enough?”

“Yeah, sure, I guess.” Max shrugs, and David seems to accept his response.

“I’m surprised, Gwen-”

“Don’t start with me.” Gwen sighs, shaking her head. “Now come here you human space heater.”

“Oh!” David nods. “But I’m not human-”

“Whatever, doesn’t matter.”

David rolls his eyes, smile not leaving his face. Max has to wonder how often David actually transforms, since he’d only seen him as a wolf for the first time today, yet David moves with practiced ease, and before Max knows it there’s a wolf in the cabin again. David puts his front paws onto Gwen’s cot, likely realizing there isn’t nearly enough room for his entire form. The back half of him hangs over the side.

“I knew there was a reason I let you make me a pack member.” Gwen pats David’s head, and turns her back to him, leaning against him. Max has a number of questions- how often this happens, what being in a pack means, when those two started getting along so well- all of which he keeps to himself. It doesn’t really matter, and it’s not as if they were ever necessarily antagonistic towards each other, so maybe Max shouldn’t be surprised.

 

Max still isn’t warm enough. Which is a very upsetting, and generally annoying, realization. He huffs out a sigh, rolling over onto his back and staring and the ceiling. It’s been at least twenty minutes- he counted- since the last disturbance to his attempts to sleep, and he still hasn’t managed to drift off. Max rolls over again, quietly sitting up, and glances at the counselors. They’re both asleep now, and he wonders if he could make his way to them without waking either of them.

It’s a stupid idea. It’s a really stupid, pointless idea that Max wouldn’t consider. Yet, he finds himself bundling the blankets around himself, standing, and taking careful steps towards them. This is dumb, and childish, and he shouldn’t even bother.

Max tries his best to climb onto the bed without waking either of them. Which is difficult because David takes up the entire space next to the bed, and Gwen has sprawled out over most of the bed, leaving no extra room. Max frowns, realizing just how much he hadn’t thought this through.

Then he realizes there are eyes on him, and turns to find David looking at him. He assumes the expression is one of curiosity, but with David’s wolf form, he can’t really tell. Still, wordlessly- Max guesses that’s just because David can’t talk- David nudges Gwen with his head until she rolls onto her side, closer to the wall. This leaves enough space for Max, who rolls his eyes in an attempt to cover any appreciation he has.

Max drapes the blankets over everyone as best he can without putting  _too_ much effort into it, before curling up between them. He feels dumb. Dumb, and childish. Like a little kid crawling into their parents bed after a nightmare. Except these aren’t his parents- he’s fairly sure his parents would have kicked him out of their bed- and he hasn’t had any nightmares tonight.

Gwen seems too far into sleep to have been woken by anything, at least, so Max is spared a minor amount of embarrassment. Though, glancing at David reminds him that there’s still plenty about this situation to be embarrassed about. This whole thing is stupid, Max decides again.

Max puts a hand against David’s nose, and pushes the wolves face so he turns away. His fur is, admittedly, very soft. It’d probably make a good blanket or something, if they shaved him. Or skinned him, but that’s a much darker thought. Admittedly, it’s also one Max doesn’t like. He may hate the guy- he doesn’t- but he doesn’t actually want him dead or skinned. “Go to sleep, asshole.”

 

When Max wakes, the counselors are both gone, and the rain seems to have stopped. He sits up, after a moment where he decides if he actually wants to, and turns to get out of bed. Beside the bed, he barely notices a cup of coffee has been left for him.

Lucky him. Max takes a sip- it hasn’t been sweetened, or anything, thankfully- and stands. Just as he does, the door is pushed open, and there David is, that stupid grin on his- human- face. “Oh! Max, you’re up!”

“Yeah, barely.”

“Well then you should head on over to the mess hall! A healthy breakfast is the best way to start a day of fun activities!”

“ _Fun_ isn’t the word I’d use.” Max pauses. “I’ll go in exchange for information.”

David pauses, like he’s considering this. “What kind of information is that?”

“Just some questions.”

“Well that’s not too bad! Sure thing, what would you like to know?”

Max briefly considers asking question he knows David wont answer, in order to mess with him, but then he thinks back to the night before, and is reminded of question he already has. With a sigh- and another sip of coffee- he nods to himself, deciding to ask those. “How often do you transform?”

“Not very often. People used to freak out so often, I don’t think about it that much!” He’s smiling- like he always is- but Davids words seem a little… off. Max has to wonder if that’s actually something that bothers David, and stores that answer away for later use.

“Okay. What the fuck is that pack thing about?”

“Language.” His attempts at stopping Max from cursing have become halfhearted at best, lately. “Lycans form packs with people they trust and/or really care about!”

“And yours is?”

“Just Gwen, now.”

“Wow, and here I thought you cared a ‘ _whole lot about all your campers_ ’ or whatever.”

David gives a small laugh, shaking his head. “We both know a lot of campers don’t come back after their first year.” Max is surprised David admits this. Some do, of course, but Max had only seen one or two return after the first year, in the few he’s been sent here.

“Except me,” Max mutters, glaring at the ground.

“So it would be weird to make them pack members.” For a second Max doesn’t think David had heard him, as he just continues speaking, but is proven wrong quickly. “And I doubt you’d even want to be, since that would make us ‘ _friends_ ’ or even ‘ _family_.’ Besides! A lot of people who aren’t Lycans don’t understand the exact way a pack works, and probably wouldn’t be happy about me making their kids pack members. Even if it isn’t that weird from my perspective!”

“Whatever you say.” Max doesn’t know what to actually say, so he leave’s his response at that. “Fine, I’ll go to the mess hall, or whatever.”

 

Neil and Nikki immediately question where Max had been, when he arrives, to which he shrugs. He’s unwilling to admit his actions, what they lead to, or the fact he didn’t actually mind how he ended up. Even if he did feel a bit childish- admittedly he knows he is a child, anyway- it hadn’t been that bad. But he isn’t about to admit that. The best way to avoid that admission is to just not say what happened at all.

“I made it snow.”

That shfits the conversation enough- Nikki is disappointed she missed the snow- that he feels like they wont question what else happened, luckily.

Max decides not to do anything without thorough planning, anymore. His luck just can’t keep up with his actions.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me if I made any typo's. I edited it, but I'm not perfect, so i could have missed something.
> 
> Anyway, this story got way longer than it was intended to be because I'm me and that's just what I always do.


End file.
